Happy Box
by Adventuresomely
Summary: I won't give in to the dulling of emotions and mind - I am a free thinker and will remain one.


When did it start? I can't remember so well anymore – it's hard to remember a lot of things about the past, before things began to change. It's hard to remember because it's easier to forget than it is to bear the things that cause me pain – and so all that remains in me is the vague recollection of traumas that once happened. What do we call that again? Repression? I can't remember that, either.

All those people in the village, they turn to me when I walk by – they say the same thing over and over again in their malicious tones. I stopped listening a long time ago, because even if I can't remember what spurred all the changes we see today, I can see what it's done to them.

"Why don't you get a Happy Box, Lucas? Don't you and your old man want to be happy, too? Stop being so stubborn and embrace the future of Tazmily!"

Of course we wanted to be happy – and sometimes we were, despite the awkward silences that hung in the air and the nights he'd drink until he passed out and I had to haul him to his bed. It was a sort of comfort in each other's presence, even if we never spoke anymore. Poor dad lost everything, too, and I know he has heart issues so he might not be around much longer. I learned to be grateful for what I have left, even if it's not very much. Once dad is gone, I'll have to take over the farm myself and think about settling down with someone so I don't have to handle everything on my own.

When I don't answer their question out loud, though, they sneer at me – it's an expression they didn't always have, I think. They changed and now they think they're better than me and my dad because they're 'happy' with their new way of life. Of course they would be happy with their lives – they live lavishly while those of us who refuse to accept change live frugally. We have no help anymore – the villagers only work for 'money' now, a concept we were better off without. We all used to work together in a sort of harmonious way, but somewhere along the line, things changed.

They've all grown blind to each other's miseries. Old man Wes got put up in a house for the elderly, a place that came out only recently, because he was getting too old to take care of himself. Without his son around to take care of him like a normal family would, he got hauled off to that place. He was better off living by himself until he died in the comfort of his own home. The building they took him to was filthy; bugs skittered across the floor and up the walls. Nobody maintained it properly because nobody honestly cared about the people who were forced to live there. If you can't work, you're just a drain on society, they say. Those who live their lavish lives couldn't care less about the human life, so long as they have everything they could possibly want. It's a sad fact, but it's what's become of Tazmily.

It wasn't always like this, but things change.

That's what I see, but don't speak out loud to them. I'm not 'happy', so nobody would listen to me anyways. They put us off as loons, people who are better off dead or at the very least, unseen by all and excluded until we become 'happy'. They've all been brainwashed, but what can we do? A few remaining believers in the old traditions versus the majority of the village who embraced the change – brother against brother, considering we all used to be as close as that. Nobody can stop the evils of the world, but one can refrain from falling to the evil, themselves. And we do; we stop ourselves from falling to what has caused it all even when the devil himself tempts us to fall to that sin. That simple little box controls them all with its colors and its beautiful, soothing sounds. Material is now more important than human life.

That box is a fake reality that sucks the watcher in and makes them believe everything is okay. The mocking laughter that comes from it, hollow and false – it changes them to their very core and shakes the beliefs they once held close to heart. It speaks lies like the tongue of the snake who spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden, poisoning all who hear. It has given knowledge that we can't take back, knowledge of a better life, of technology, and of the concept that we don't have to rely on each other to survive. We've become segregated by that technology, and everyone has failed to realize just what has happened.

I've watched one of those boxes before – they're everywhere now, after all. I wanted just for once to see what was so great and so important about it, and why people chose to worship a piece of plastic that made sound and moving images. Even after watching, I still don't understand – all I could see was mindless people speaking to one another, telling lies, committing sins that are against what any of us were raised with – something that could be described as absolutely evil, in a sense. Sometimes they would shout at each other for their lies and deception, and I wondered for just a moment,

"_Why is this so important to people? Why do they care for thoughtless actions, lies, and dramatic performances that have no meaning to actual life?"_

Only, I already knew the answer to that. In becoming 'happy', people became depressed with their own lives and longed to numb their consciousness with something that held no meaning. To delve deeper into thought, to cast aside the security blanket they had wrapped themselves up in so tightly – it would cause them so much pain. Without that mind numbing 'support', they would be forced to face reality and see what monsters they've become. They would be forced out of their newly developed narcissistic traits and have to look at what their world is – an absolute mess that needs to be cleaned up.

That was why they wanted to suck me and my father into their world, too. The more people who were blinded and numbed to thought, the better the falsified reality would be. There would be no one left to question life, or why it'd become the way it had. Everyone would be the same; sheep in a herd that follow the trends and believe in every lie they're told. With no free thinkers left, everyone would be comfortably numb and 'happy' with their Happy Boxes.

That's why I stand against it and don't give in to the temptation of mind numbing bliss. I value my free thought more than I value the idea of comfort.

That's how it should be.


End file.
